So I invite you to either join me standing to find a comfortable seat or even lay down.
And as you're coming into this position,
Just take a moment to shake out or roll out through the shoulders.
And you're welcome to bring very small swaying movements or even to walk during this.
But it's also nice to find stillness and to close down the eyes just to bring your attention inward.
So arriving in your position of choice,
Welcome yourself to practice today.
Let's take a big breath in through the nose and a yawn or sigh out through the mouth.
And take two more at your own pace.
And beginning at the very top of the head,
Get to imagine your awareness raining down on your body.
Moving from the head down to the toes,
Just beginning to notice the sensations in your body,
You might notice the tension of your muscles,
Any pain,
Any places that feel really good.
Perhaps noticing the heartbeat or if there's any tingling or pulsing as you move down through the body,
Starting at the head,
Moving down to the forehead,
The temples,
The scalp,
The ears,
The eyebrows,
The right eye,
And the left eye,
The tip of the nose.
Sensing the breath coming in to the nostrils.
And taking a deeper inhale,
Noticing any fragrances in your space.
Letting awareness flow from the ears along the jawline.
And perhaps taking another yawn or intentionally softening the muscles around the jaw.
Letting your awareness spiral down the throat,
The back of the neck.
Sensing the top of the shoulders.
Awareness flowing down the upper arm,
The forearms.
Sensing the palm and the fingers of each hand.
And it may help you to connect to this part of the body by moving or to imagine you're inside your hand,
Looking out,
Experiencing your body from the inside out.
Bringing that awareness back up the arms,
Across the front of the chest.
Sensing the collarbones,
The front of the ribcage.
The sides of the ribcage,
The back of the ribcage.
Letting awareness come down lower into the hips and the pelvis.
You might bring hands to touch the low belly.
And notice the tension here.
Are you sucking in and holding in your belly?
If you wanted to,
Could you push your belly out and stretch it big?
And if you took a very deep breath,
Could you feel a sensation of the belly getting big and round,
Expanding?
Taking a few breaths here to explore how much air can you fill your lungs?
Do you sense that through the whole torso?
Can you sense it all the way down to the belly?
Can you feel that breath expand through the back of the pelvis?
So if you're laying down,
Perhaps that breath presses into the floor.
And if you're standing or seated,
You might bring your hands to rest above the sacrum,
That small triangle bone,
And just breathe.
See if you can expand into the back of the pelvis.
Letting your awareness spiral down,
Sensing the outside of the thighs,
The front and back of the thighs.
Sensing the knees,
The calf muscles along the back of the legs.
Bringing awareness down to the ankles,
Down to the feet.
Sensing the soles of the feet,
All the way to the tip of the toes.
You might even wiggle your toes just a little bit.
And could you expand your awareness so it fills your entire body from head to toe?
Noticing the sensations in various parts.
Where can you feel your heartbeat?
And which parts of your body feel tight or tense?
Making a mental note.
Perhaps it's in the shoulders,
The stomach,
The hips.
And noticing now any parts of your body that feel tight or tense.
That feel calm,
That feel pleasant.
Making a mental note.
Which parts of your body feel good?
So keeping all of this information that we just learned,
That we noticed,
As your snapshot of before.
This is our impression of our body before our somatic self-care work.
And I'll ask you at the end to do a similar but shorter scan so that we can compare how do we feel before and after.
